


Finding the Balance

by lasairfhiona



Category: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-20
Updated: 2012-03-20
Packaged: 2017-11-02 06:35:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/366013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lasairfhiona/pseuds/lasairfhiona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post TPM and set just before the beginning of New Hope.  JA is considered canon in my world as is Greg Bear's  Rogue Planet.</p><p>Sequel to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/366008">Dust in the Wind</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	Finding the Balance

Ben Kenobi didn't know what caused him to open the carved wooden storage box today. He hadn't opened it for far too many years to count. It held too many memories of a past he often wished he could forget and one he would never forget.

He touched the objects in the box with a kind reverence saved for living things, because to him they were living objects. They each held a bit of the person he was long before the Clone Wars and Palpatine and Vader's systematic eradication of the Jedi. To him they held memories of a past filled with great joy as well as great sorrow. Holoimages of a long past and happier day. Images of him and Qui-Gon. Images of Bant. And many others long passed into the Force. The rock Qui-Gon had given him for his naming day, the same rock that saved his life. But there, beneath all of it, were three light sabers.

He ran his fingers reverently over the first, his own saber. He hadn't need of it in this place. To the people of Tatooine he was a crazy old hermit named Ben Kenobi, not a Jedi Knight named Obi-Wan Kenobi. A general in the Republic Army. For the first time since he went into hiding, he ignited his saber and took a few swings. He was out of practice but he could still make the precise movements. Cutting the power, he replaced his saber and ran his fingers across the one next to it.

Anakin's.

It was the last bit of his former Padawan he had. He was saving it for the boy. The boy he watched over while staying hidden in this wasteland. Anakin's son. Luke Skywalker. He had watched from a distance while the boy grew and the force grew within him. Soon he'd have to approach the boy. Soon he'd have to tell the boy he was the last hope for the Jedi possibly the last hope for ultimately defeating the Emperor and restoring the Republic. He could feel it deep in his bones, the time was coming. He replaced the saber. When the time was right he'd pass the saber on to the next generation. 

The third and last saber in the box was Qui-Gon's.

He'd used the saber as his own for many years after Qui-Gon's death as a memorial to the man who had taught him. To the man he had loved. He'd used it until the pain of still being able to feel his master, his lover's, force impression became too much and he'd built himself a replacement saber. Then he'd put Qui-Gon's saber away and never ignited the blade again.

"Oh Qui, I can still feel you," he said sadly as he stroked the metal. He wished he could talk to Qui-Gon, he longed to hear his master's voice. As a boy Anakin had told him of the times he'd "talked" to Qui-Gon in his dreams. Then, he hadn't wanted to talk to Qui-Gon, he hadn't wanted to see the man, hear the voice in his dreams that he so terribly missed in person. Picking up the long cylinder, he turned it over in his hand. "I can feel my time here growing to an end. It won't be long now until I finally join you," Obi-Wan said to himself, but knew that somewhere in the Force Qui-Gon would hear him. He replaced Qui-Gon's saber in the box and closed the lid.

Walking to the door, he looked out of his hut at the Jundland Wastes and the Dune Sea. "You know, Qui-Gon, you were only half right about Anakin, and the prophecy. He brought destruction to the Republic and the Jedi, but he fathered a child who will bring balance to both sides. Luke is the one the prophecies talked about. Not Anakin. I only hope that I can teach the boy better than I taught the father," Obi-Wan sighed. Yes he could feel it. He could feel the stirring of the force. The time was almost upon them and he would pass what he could to the boy before he met his apprentice one last time. With that last thought Ben Kenobi pulled his cloak around him and walked out of his hut. He felt the Force pull him toward a nearby valley and he walked in that direction. Because of the sudden flare in the Force, he knew that the time he had been waiting for had come. Sooner than he had expected, but nonetheless, he was prepared for what was to come.


End file.
